Day 10: Where does the story take place?

Story and setting. Your premise has likely pointed you in one direction or another, but now it’s time to begin to nail down some details about your setting.

What type of place will help mirror or juxtapose the theme/s you want to convey?

What conditions have to be present to allow your protagonist and antagonist to exist and shape their primary desires?

Is it a historical time or place, a fantastical one, or your own hometown with some names changed and details inverted?

What about the setting is going to affect the story and the protagonist?

Action Plan: Answer the above questions to get a basic skeleton of what you need from your setting. If you’re using a real location, historical or otherwise, you might identify major topics that are sure to come up in your story and begin hunting down research or reference materials to avoid a major mistake that jars readers out of the experience. If you’re inventing a location, you can start the worldbuilding process, which might also entail research. You can also start a moodboard on Pinterest or download images to your hard drive to serve as inspiration for the setting. Resist the temptation to spend too much time on this step, however, unless you want the setting itself to be a major character in the story.

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Welcome Storytellers!

Triple Crit is a blog for storytellers of all sorts, be they behind the GM screen, keyboard, or character sheet. Here you can find articles and advice on campaign management, adventure design, character development, writing, and geek culture.

The author, Katrina Ostrander, is a twenty-something gamer chick, game master, and blogger working in the tabletop games industry for Fantasy Flight Games. In addition to her work as an editor of tie-in fiction, she has worked on nearly a dozen roleplaying game adventures and supplements. Her opinions are her own.